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Slaves become so (we are told) in this Country, by War, by Mulcts on some particular Crimes, or Debts which they are unable to discharge; and they are bought by us (some say) not as Merchants, but Christians, to preserve them from Sacrifice and Cannibals, to convey them to a Land flowing with more Milk and Honey, to a better Living, better Manners, Virtue, and Religion; let us examine each of these Pretences.
First, theNegroes. By War for the most part is meant Robbery of inland, defenceless Creatures, who are hurried down to the Coast with the greater Cruelty, as it is from a contented, tho’ a very poor Life. Trade has improved the Robbers, but as all are notalike expert, or alike Villains, it is alterable, ebbs and flows, and at some places we have never yet had any.
2. TheNegroesbecome Slaves to one another, by Mulcts imposed on some sort of Crimes, or Debts contracted beyond their Ability to discharge. Few come to us this way; for tho’ much Artifice and Revenge might mix in theirPalaavers(Justiciary Courts) yet their Jurisdiction extends not beyond their own Towns, when Self-preservation will teach them more regard to Justice for their own sakes, lest the Relations of those sentenced should revenge it, and also because the Barbarity would encrease an Enmity to the Rulers, the Punishment falling on Neighbours of the same Country, Complexion, Language, and Religion.
We who buy Slaves, say we confer a Good, removing them to a better state both of Temporals and Spirituals; the latter, few have the Hypocrisy (among us) to[35]own, and therefore I shall only touch on the former.
They live indeed, according to ourEuropeanPhrase, very poor and mean, destitute almost of the common Necessaries of Life;but never starve, that is peculiar to trading Republicks; then who is judge of their Wants, themselves, or we? Or what does Poorness mean? more than a sound, to signify we have that which another does not want. Do not many men in politer Nations, renounce the World for Cloisters and Desarts, and place a greater happiness in preserving their Innocence, than enjoying even the Necessaries of Life; nay, often ravished with the neglect of them. Wherever therefore Contentment can dwell, tho’ under the meanest Circumstances, it is a barbarous Corruption to stile such poor, for they have every thing they desire, or, which is much the same, are happily ignorant of any thing more desirable.
To removeNegroesthen from their Homes and Friends, where they are at ease, to a strange Country, People, and Language, must be highly offending against the Laws of natural Justice and Humanity; and especially when this change is to hard Labour, corporal Punishment, and forMastersthey wish at the D——l.
We are Accessaries by Trade, to all that Cruelty of their Countrymen, which has subjected them to the Condition of Slaves, little better in our Plantations, than that of Cattle; the Rigour of their usage having made some hundreds of them atJamaicarun away into barren Mountains, where they chuse to trust Providence with theirSubsistance, rather thantheir Fellow-Christians(now) in the Plantations.
Slavesdiffer in their Goodness; those from theGold Coastare accounted best, being cleaned limbed, and more docible by our Settlements than others; but then they are, for that very reason, more prompt to Revenge, and murder the Instruments of their Slavery, and also apter in the means to compass it.
To Windward they approach in Goodness as is the distance from the Gold Coast; so, as atGambia, orSierraleon, to be much better, than at any of the interjacent places.
To Leeward from thence, they alter gradually for the worse; anAngolan Negrois a Proverb for worthlessness; and they mend (if we may call it so) in that way, till you come to theHottentots, that is, to the Southermost Extremity ofAfrica.
I have observed how our Trading is managed for Slaves, when obliged to be carried on aboard the Ship.—Where there are Factories, (Gambia,Sierraleon,the Gold Coast,Whydah,Calabar,Cabenda, andAngola,) we are more at large; they are sold in open Market on shore, and examined by us in like manner, as our Brother Trade do Beasts inSmithfield; the Countenance, and Stature, a good Set of Teeth, Pliancy in their Limbs and Joints, and being freeof Venereal Taint, are the things inspected, and governs our choice in buying.
The bulk of them are country People, stupid as is their distance from the Converse of the Coast-Negroes, eat all day if Victuals is before them; or if not, let it alone without Complaint; part without Tears with their Wives, Children, and Country, and are more affected with Pain than Death: yet in this indocile State, the Women retain a Modesty, for tho’ stripped of that poor Clout which covers their Privities (as I know theWhydahsgenerally do) they will keep squatted all day long on board, to hide them.
WhydahSlaves are more subject to Small-Pox, and sore Eyes; other parts to a sleepy Distemper, and to Windward,Exomphalos’s. There are few Instances of Deformity any where; even their Nobles know nothing of chronical Distempers, nor their Ladies, of the Vapours. Their flattish Noses are owing to a continued grubbing in their Infancy against their Mother’s Backs, being tied within theTomee, whether upon Travel or Business, for a year or two, the time of their sucking.